Do people at the political extremes have better political knowledge?
The dominant view in social sciences assumes that people at the political extremes are more knowledgeable about politics than those who are more moderate. But a new study reveals a more nuanced and complex reality.
New research from Jonas De keersmaecker (IE University, former researcher at Esade) and Katharina Schmid, professor in the Full Time MBA and Executive MBA programs at Esade, with Chris G. Sibley and Danny Osborne from the University of Auckland, reveals that people with extreme political views are not universally more likely to be more knowledgeable about politics than those with moderate views.
Specifically, the authors show that the relationship between political orientation and political knowledge is complex and varies across countries — and that generalized assumptions should be avoided.
The study found a common pattern of higher knowledge levels in people who are moderately left or right wing
The data-driven research, published in the journal Scientific Reports, examined the link between political orientation and political knowledge in 45 countries and by and large found a common pattern of higher knowledge levels in individuals who are moderately left or right wing. This pattern was more evident in Western countries.
The key to democracy
A good level of political knowledge is essential for a well-functioning democracy. Understanding political decisions and the principles and context within which they’re made shapes the acceptance or rejection of political policy. An adequate level of understanding allows individuals to identify the policies and political parties that most accurately reflect their own views and values.
But does the level of knowledge held by an individual shape their political views? Are uninformed citizens particularly susceptible to extreme left-wing or right-wing political orientations? Or do those highly knowledgeable about politics endorse more extreme ideologies?
The answers to these questions are critical to inform policy, yet the relationship between knowledge and political orientation is surprisingly understudied. Previous research has concluded that the average person lacks a deep understanding of politics, but whether extreme positions are universally linked to more sophisticated and well-informed views remained unclear.
Expanding the model
A select number of prior studies revealed an association between a higher level of knowledge and political extremism. But the evidence for this research is limited and most of the studies are based on data from the United States.
The researchers studied the relationship between political orientation and political knowledge from 45 nations over six continents
Political ideology is embedded in national and cultural contexts, and focusing on one Western country cannot accurately pinpoint a statistically relevant relationship and apply it to other contexts. The analysis from Schmid and their co-authors addressed this with a comprehensive and statistically robust methodology that examines the relationship between political orientation and political knowledge from 45 nations over six continents.
Where previous research relied on two possibilities (the relationship between political orientation and political knowledge being either linear or u-shaped), the new analysis uses a data-driven approach to modeling that reveals a more complex series of relationships. A combined sample of 63,544 participants was analyzed: all the data can be found at https://osf.io/gbp6z/.
In their sample, political orientation was measured on a scale of 0 to 10 ranging from left to right, while political knowledge was determined with a multi-item test of general political facts involving questions like ‘Who is the current minister of finance?’
Key findings
- There was an absence of a significant association between political orientation and political knowledge in seven out of the 45 countries: Dominican Republic, Ireland, Latvia, Philippines, Serbia, South Korea and Turkey.
- A linear relationship between political orientation and political knowledge was found in 10 countries: positive (more knowledgeable on the right) in Chile, Finland and Taiwan, and negative (more knowledgeable on the left) in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Romania, Slovenia and Uruguay.
- Austria was the only country where people at the political center were more knowledgeable than people who placed themselves at the extremes.
- In Hong Kong and Portugal, those with extreme left or right views were more knowledgeable than those at the center.
- In 15 out of 45 countries (Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Montenegro, New Zealand, Norway, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States), people who considered themselves moderately left or right wing were more politically knowledgeable than those both at the center and at the extreme of the right or left. This pattern was reversed in Mozambique, where the center, the extreme left and extreme right were most knowledgeable.
- In nine of the 45 countries (Australia, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Kenya, Poland, and South Africa) the association between political orientation and political knowledge was asymmetric among the political center.
Future directions
In this study, political orientation was a predictor of political knowledge in 38 out of 45 countries. However, the authors caution that their model does not suggest political orientation to be a significant determinant of factual political knowledge (or vice versa).
Rather than attempting to offer predictions, their statistical demonstration highlights the nuances across contexts and cultures. The researchers aim to provide a starting point for examining the relationship between political orientation and knowledge within and between countries.
Being left, right or moderate represents distinct beliefs and opinions depending on the national and historical context. Even holding factual political knowledge might be relatively easier or more difficult depending on the circumstances.
Reducing the entire ideological spectrum to ‘the left’ and ‘the right’ is overly simplistic and overlooks important nuances
Key paths for future research, the authors suggest, could include examining how changes within countries impact the relationship between orientation and knowledge. Specifically, exploring whether changes in government or economic situations affect this relationship could prove beneficial in expanding the understanding of how socio-political contexts shape results.
It is also important to note that the prevalent discourse in the social sciences often centers on questions of ideological symmetry or asymmetry, seeking to understand how left-wing and right-wing individuals differ. Instead, more attention should be directed toward those in the political center, given their importance for electoral outcomes.
"The present results highlight the dangers of focusing solely on the extremes and indicate that reducing the entire ideological spectrum to ‘the left’ and ‘the right’ is overly simplistic and overlooks important nuances," the authors state.